Forest Firefighters Depend on the Allied Winch

In the Southeastern US, forest fires are a fact of life. Every year, the risk of fire is present, usually in the winter months from January to April, when humidity is low. To help prevent fires before they start, to help contain them once ignited, and to help clean up afterwards, forestry commissions and private landowners from Virginia to Texas and in the Upper Midwest have found the Allied W3C winch teamed up with the Dressta Fire Plow Tractor to be a versatile solution to support all these operations.

The Dressta Fire Plow Tractor is based on the Dressta H Series TD-7H, TD-8H, TD-9H and TD-9H XP dozers. According to Bernie Winker, Manager of Engineering and Marketing Services for Dressta North America in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, “this dozer series makes use of direct drive powertrain rather than hydrostatic drive. Direct drive generates less heat, so that the probability of engine or powertrain overheating under a constant, steady load is much reduced.”

The Allied W3C winch is added to the Fire Plow Tractor to extend its range of operation and to give the operator greater confidence. Where soil conditions are poor, the winch allows the operator to enter an area without the fear of bogging down. The operator can use the winch to rescue himself quickly. When operating near an active fire, this is a major safety advantage.

The winch can also be used to extract downed trees, both before and after a fire. The large cable capacity allows the operator to reach down into valleys and bogs to retrieve logs that couldn’t be easily handled otherwise.

Because the Allied winch is driven by a PTO shaft, it delivers close to 100 percent of the dozer horsepower to the winch cable. This provides for the maximum possible line speed and line pull to the cable.

The other key attachment is the fire plow. The plow is used to help create fire breaks and to help in the clean-up after a fire. Generally, a dozer has either a winch or a fire plow. But an innovative design from Charlie Jones, Equipment Manager for South Carolina Forestry Commission in Columbia, South Carolina, allows a dozer to operate with both winch and fire plow attached. Charlie came up with a special drawbar design that extends the drawbar pin further back, beyond the rear of the winch fairlead. The fire plow connects to the winch drawbar and remains free to make tight turns without coming into contact with the winch. The winch remains available for self-rescue and heavy pulling.

Extensive modifications to the dozer make for a well-adapted unit. Metal fuel lines, firesleeves on electrical wiring, fire-resistant sheathing on hydraulic lines, forestry exhaust, and limb risers provide the extra protection needed for working in a tinder-box environment.

The Dressta Fire Plow Tractor is a proven and well-accepted tool in the forest. Several hundred Dressta units are currently on the job, helping to make our Southeastern US forests safer.